Gov.’s Image Is Improving and Democrats May Burnish It More

Sacramento —  As the Democratic candidates battle each other for their party’s nomination, the Republican governor is quietly healing his wounds and moving into better position to run for reelection.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger even is getting some Democratic help in the Legislature, where leaders are nearly agreed on a roughly $35-billion infrastructure bond package for transportation, schools, flood control and urban housing.

That’s only half the overly ambitious $68-billion bond plan Schwarzenegger originally proposed. But he’ll happily accept whatever Democratic and Republican lawmakers agree to because it’ll help restore his initial, popular image as a bipartisan problem-solver.

“It’s scary,” says one Democratic consultant, envisioning the Republican governor and Democratic legislators campaigning chummily for the bonds that would go on the November ballot. “If the Legislature locks arms with him and sings ‘Kumbaya,’ does that hurt [Controller Steve] Westly or [Treasurer Phil] Angelides? I think so.”

But Democratic lawmakers care less about hurting their party’s future gubernatorial nominee than they do about polishing their own image, which is even more tarnished than the governor’s.

Schwarzenegger and the Legislature also are about to reap the political benefits of soaring tax revenues. The tax take is up $4 billion over January projections. That means there shouldn’t be any proposed spending cuts to squabble about -- and the good possibility of enacting a rare, on-time budget by July 1, making everyone look unusually responsible.

By fall, the governor may be able to show voters that he can work cooperatively with the Legislature, after all, and exercise “leadership.”

If you’ve noticed, Schwarzenegger also has abandoned what one advisor derisively calls “the carnival events” -- the hokey, lavish mall rallies with dumbing-down gimmicks like red ink flowing from a Capitol dome.

These days, his photo-ops are more gubernatorial -- like trekking to a Sacramento River bank Wednesday and talking about a new agreement with the Bush administration to speed up levee repairs.

And I can’t remember the last time a governor traveled to an owners meeting of a professional sports league and lobbied to place a team in California. Schwarzenegger argued for two teams -- one at the Coliseum and the other in Anaheim -- at a meeting Tuesday of National Football League owners in Dallas. That should be a crowd-pleaser among Southern California football fans.

“It’s one thing that my kids have been talking about ever since I became governor,” Schwarzenegger told reporters afterward. “They think I can do anything, that I will just come here and I will make this happen.

“Because they see me in the movies blowing up buildings and wiping out armies and conquering witches and the devil. So they think that their daddy will just go there and he’s going to bring some teams back.”

Even a Democrat has to like this guy a little bit. Whether it’s enough to reelect him, nobody yet knows.

But it always has been my assumption -- given the weaknesses of the Democratic contenders -- that Schwarzenegger probably will get reelected if there’s not a widespread, visceral dislike of him. There was during last year’s special election. And there was of Gov. Gray Davis when he was recalled three years ago.

Sifting through a recent Times poll, however, I found no evidence of a visceral dislike of Schwarzenegger right now.

“It’s not so much visceral as it is disappointment,” says Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus. “He hasn’t met a lot of voters’ expectations. There’s some ambivalence about whether they like him....

“He’s doing all the right things, not alienating voters as he did before the special election. He apologized for the election, and voters tend to be very forgiving. He still has a long way to go, but there’s a lot of time and he has room to move.”

What caught my eye in the poll was not so much Schwarzenegger’s job approval -- now 44% among registered voters, up from 37% in October -- but people’s “impression” of him. It was 51% favorable, compared to 40% in October. It’s now closer to the 56% favorable impression that voters had of the governor just after he took office.

“Impression” is an oft-ignored measurement that connotes likability, as opposed to job performance. If a politician is generally liked, voters may give him the benefit of doubt -- and a second chance.

Of course, Schwarzenegger still is working his way back to likability. And, based on the poll, 36% of the electorate says it “definitely” won’t vote for him. Another 12% says it “probably” won’t. In hypothetical matchups, the governor is trailing Westly by nine points (48% to 39%) and running even with Angelides (43% apiece).

This is while Schwarzenegger benefits from not being smacked around by TV ads, as he was last year and surely will be in the fall.

“He’s bounded back a little bit from the visceral dislike during ‘the year of reform,’ but my guess is that [dislike] will be regenerated in the general election,” says David Doak, the veteran creator of Westly’s TV ads. “He’s skating free right now.”

Moreover, Doak adds, Schwarzenegger’s chief vulnerability is that “there’s a pervasive feeling that he’s in over his head and hasn’t accomplished anything. He’s not really up to the job.”

The Times Poll tended to confirm that assertion: 53% felt Schwarzenegger had not met their expectations.

That’s what makes a bond deal so important. An on-time budget also would help -- but not as much as two football teams.

*

George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.